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Buy It, Steal It, Skip It: Music Releases for the Week of May 12

Oh Boy, Hey Ma, Cam'ron is back. And it's nothinglike the aforementioned hits from seven years ago. In fact, Crime Paysis no different than the two records he put out after 2002's *Come Home With Me.*It's that "my hood's nastier than your hood" rap that rattles the trunks of suburban white kids' Ford Escorts. Not to say Cam'ron's songwriting is disingenuous: he hassurvived gunshot wounds, and his former bandmate, friend, and fellow Harlemite Big L was shot and killed in 1999. But Crime Payssounds like all the lackluster rap that came in the wake of Cam'ron—songs steeped in bling, hoes, and other pre-recession ephemera. On "You Know What's Up" where he actually raps, "This bitch ain't nothing but a filthy slut/That's why I fuck bitches/All I do is fuck bitches." What a shame: You usedto make good music

__Verdict:__Skip it

Better Than Ezra Paper Empire

Better Than Ezra hails from that sad post-grunge period in music when the charts were ruled by boy bands and Pavement's break-up left indie rockers bereft. No one really remembers what they sound like (thank God), except for that compulsively hummable single, "Good." So it's a shame that Better Than Ezra had to make another record to remind us how lousy music was between 1995 and 1999. To them, pointlessly distorted 4/4 power chords and lyrics worthy of the Backstreet Boys may sound "Like a Technicolor dream," but to me it's a nightmare I thought I woke up from long ago.